RSCVA has yet to land a film despite $150,000 recruitment effort

The Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority has slashed its budget for promoting the region to film producers after an intensive $150,000 recruitment effort has so far failed to win a single concrete project to the region.

In its latest budget, the RSCVA has cut its spending on film recruitment by 65 percent to $28,000, opting not to renew a contract with its film consultant, Jeff Spilman. The agency, however, is still paying Spilman's expenses for work he is doing on three films that may come to the area, said the RSCVA's CEO Chris Baum.

The RSCVA's decision to slash the film budget comes six months after a Reno Gazette-Journal investigation into Spilman's background, which includes a failed film production company in Michigan and a string of bankruptcies.

Baum said this week that the producers of three major projects have told the RSCVA that they have chosen Northern Nevada as their shooting location, but have asked to remain anonymous until they apply for a film tax credit through the state. Those projects include a $9 million cable television series and two independent films, Baum said.

"All hope to apply for the incentive and start shooting in calendar 2014," Baum said. "We are focusing on these three 'hot' projects, as experience shows that films that come in the first year of an incentive create the word of mouth 'buzz' that brings in future productions."

Baum, however, has long been touting interest from "undisclosed" film producers as signs of the RSCVA's success in jump-starting the film industry in the wake of Nevada's new film tax incentive.

Not long after Baum was hired by the RSCVA in 2012, he began paying Spilman, an old associate from Detroit, to act as the agency's film consultant. Spilman helped lobby the state Legislature to pass the film tax incentive. He also has been promising to deliver a series of projects that so far haven't materialized.

The RSCVA paid him $72,000 in 2012 and $80,000 in 2013. This year, the board opted not to give him a contract, but will continue to pay his expenses out of the $28,000 film office budget.

Baum also began marketing part of the RSCVA's convention space as a film studio, setting aside space for three sound stages when the halls aren't being used by other convention activity. So far, the studio has been used to film one toy commercial, Baum said.

Meanwhile, four film projects in Las Vegas have been approved for tax credits under the $20 million program. "Mall Cop: Blart 2" has been awarded $4.2 million to film in Las Vegas. Three other smaller projects, including a pilot for an American Idol-type television show and two films have been awarded between $102,000 and $296,000 apiece.

Baum still is confident that the film industry could be a valuable new economic sector for Northern Nevada. He said the three undisclosed projects could net more than 33,000 room nights if they come to fruition.

And, two years after Baum began his effort to woo the film industry here, that's still a pretty big 'if.'

After a Reno judge made the locally unprecedented move of blocking the city from laying off 32 firefighters, at least temporarily, the city is looking wherever it can to find the $2 million it now needs for its budget in the next year.

The City Council will hold a hearing on Tuesday to go over the options.

But Councilwoman Neoma Jardon wants to focus on at least one potential option: consolidating the Reno Municipal Court system with the Reno Justice Court system.

The idea of merging the two lower courts has been kicking around for two decades. The municipal court handles citations and misdemeanor cases for the city, while the justice court handles such cases from the unincorporated county areas, as well as from within the cities.

Proponents of merging the two courts argue there is significant overlap and duplication of services in the two courts.

A memo prepared by Justice of the Peace Scott Pearson for Jardon estimates cost savings of between $4 million and $5 million a year — which could free up money to keep firefighters on board, she says.

Pearson proposes merging the municipal court into the justice court over a period of about five years, so those savings wouldn't be immediate.

Pearson's report acknowledges that critics of the idea believe legislative action would be needed and estimate a merged court would be more expensive to operate.